Defendants with settlements dismissed from Hooper commission lawsuit

The Hooper (formerly Phillips) copycat commission lawsuit is down a few defendants. In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Mark H. Cohen of the U.S. District Court in Atlanta granted the plaintiffs’ consent motion to drop certain defendants from the suit with prejudice.

The defendants now free from the suit are Christie’s International Real Estate, Engel & Völkers Americas, Engel & Völkers Atlanta, Redfin, HomeSmart Holdings, Solid Source Realty, Palmerhouse Properties and Ansley Atlanta Real Estate. Each of these defendants have reached settlement agreements in other commission lawsuits, or have opted into or were protected by the National Association of Realtors’ settlement in the Sitzer/Burnett suit.

The Hooper plaintiffs jointly filed their consent motion with the defendants in question on Wednesday. In their motion, the parties argued that due to the settlements, “there are no actionable claims pending against the Settled Defendants,” and that the defendants “should be dropped from this action on just terms pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 21.”

While the Hooper suit has had few defendants removed, several still remain, including eXp World Holdings and Weichert of North America, each of which have negotiated proposed settlements with the Hooper plaintiffs.

The court has yet to grant preliminary approval to the eXp and Weichert settlements, which are already facing opposition from the plaintiffs in the combined Gibson and Umpa commission lawsuits.